Crystalline salts such as ethylenediamine dihydriodide, potassium iodide, and calcium iodate have been added to feedstuffs to provide supplemental iodine to animals. These salts were prepared by well-known chemical methods and have been sold in the form of finely-divided crystalline powders. Sometimes these crystalline iodine salts were diluted with inert chemicals to prevent caking or to provide some degree of separation from other materials when the iodine salt was added to feedstuffs. These products do not have the blending and stability characteristics that are desirable and necessary for superior feedstuffs performance.
Other feed supplements have been prepared by absorbing a concentrated solution of ethylenediamine dihydriodide on an absorptive carrier such as corn gluten feed, wheat bran, or soybean meal. The wet mixture was dried followed by the addition of stabilizers, coloring agents, and diluents. While this supplement's performance in feedstuffs was superior to that of the crystalline iodine salts, it was expensive to manufacture and therefore not commercially acceptable.
Another material used for an iodine feed supplement consisted of a solution of potassium iodide, sodium iodide, or ethylenediamine dihydriodide absorbed on a vegetable carrier with added preservatives, coloring agents, and diluents. While this supplement provided improved performance in feedstuffs over other existing supplements, it also was quite expensive to manufacture.
There is a real and thus unsatisfied need in the art for a stable iodine animal feed supplement and a method of preparing the feed supplement which provides superior performance in feedstuffs and which can be manufactured inexpensively.